About this project

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In September, 2012, we will present the modern première of
Pancrace Royer's Pyrrhus at the Château
de Versailles. Royer was a
contemporary of Jean-Philippe Rameau who wrote marvelous harpsichord music and
also composed operas. This 1730 tragédie
en musique is the second Royer opera to be
revived by project director Lisa Goode Crawford, who produced his 1743
opera-ballet Le Pouvoir de l'Amour
at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2002, to critical acclaim, both for the
production and for the music, heard for the first time since the eighteenth
century. Emerita professor of
harpsichord at Oberlin, Ms. Crawford will be collaborating with Michael
Greenberg and his group Les Enfants d'Apollon, based in Paris, to perform the opera in concert
version in the Salle des Croisades of the château. She is also completing a critical edition of Pyrrhus for the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles; so this concert, a significant event in itself, will also help to inform the edition. The thirty-five musicians
involved in the performance will begin rehearsing at the beginning of September
for the concert on Sunday, September 16.

SOLOISTS

Emmanuelle de Negri,
soprano, as the heroine, Polyxéne

Alain Buet, baritone,
as Pyrrhus

Guillemette Laurens,
mezzo-soprano, as Eriphile, the villainess

Jeffrey Thompson,
haute-contre, as Pyrrhus' friend, Acamas

ROYER

After languishing in obscurity
for over two centuries, Pancrace Royer (1705-1755) is now quite well-known for
his elegant and dramatic harpsichord music. Music master to the children of Louis XV and composer of the
King's Chamber, General Inspector of the Paris Opéra and director of the
Concert Spirituel, Royer is also remembered as the subject of a 1742 police
report for getting into a heated argument with his rival Jean-Philippe Rameau
in public, and for incurring the wrath of Voltaire when he set that author's
"Pandore" to music without asking permission to modify the text!
Decidedly, Royer is a figure worthy of further investigation.

PYRRHUS

Pyrrhus was the first of several works Royer composed for the
Paris Opera and his only tragédie en musique. Withdrawn after seven performances, it has never been
revived. This concert will be its modern premiere - not an unusual
occurrence in the world of historically informed performance, but Pyrrhus is distinctive because it is one of the few operas
created at the Paris Opera for which the original performance material has
survived intact. Theoretically, if the manuscripts were to be placed before the
same number of musicians as participated in the
creation, it would be possible to give the eighth show... nearly three hundred
years later! A most remarkable means of time travel.

These original instrumental
and vocal parts are invaluable for enabling the reconstitution of the original
score of Pyrrhus, for which no
autograph manuscript is known to survive.
Because we have a complete set of parts, we do not have to rely on the
18th century printed reduced score, which, as was usual with such scores, does
not include the inner string parts or chorus parts, and which is often vague
about the orchestration of the melody instruments. Saving space by reducing the score reduced the cost of
publication of such scores in the 18th century. However, it also resulted in
omissions and ambiguities that allow today's musicians a great deal of latitude
in instrumentation compared with the music of the Classical and Romantic
periods. As a consequence, the personal taste of today's performers often
decides the choice of instrumentation. For example, it is possible to perform
the operas of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) with a forty-piece orchestra
or an ensemble comprising only two violins, a violoncello and a harpsichord.
Without access to original performance material, such a subjective approach is
often applied generally to works of music created over an extended historical
period, without consideration for their geographical origin or the specific
style of the composer.

On the other hand, the
source material of Pyrrhus, by
allowing the complete restoration of the work, reveals with rare detail how its
young composer, fully aware of the resources available to him at the Paris
Opera, calculates his instrumental effects. In this regard it contributes
significantly to our knowledge of French opera and the evolution of the symphony
orchestra.

The drama is remarkably coherent
for an opera libretto. Pyrrhus conquers Troy and kills its king but is himself
subjugated by the beauty of the defeated princess Polyxène. She in turn is
coveted by Pyrrhus's companion in arms, Acamas, and despised by the
magician-princess Eriphile, Pyrrhus's betrothed, who join forces to prevent the
union. Torn between her duty towards her defeated people and her own happiness,
will Polyxène declare her love for Pyrrhus before the sinister projects of
Eriphile and Acamas succeed? The suspense is maintained until the final bar!

How the Funding Will Help

We are four-fifths funded for the concert, whose total budget is $43,900, almost all in
musicians' fees.

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Pledge $65 or more
About $65

Many thanks, and a beautiful poster (detail of Boucher painting: http://www.oberlin.edu/royer-op/images/Royer_Poster.htm) for Oberlin production of "Le Pouvoir de l'Amour".
Last remaining - collectors' items!

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Pledge $75 or more
About $75

Many thanks, a cd of excerpts from "Pyrrhus", and a cd of "Pièces de Clavecin" by François Couperin, performed by Lisa Goode Crawford on the Ruckers harpsichord at the Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar, France

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Pledge $420 or more
About $420

Many thanks, two tickets to the concert of "Pyrrhus" on 16 September 2012 in the Château de Versailles, invitation to a reception with the artists after the concert, an autographed program book, and a cd of excerpts from "Pyrrhus"

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Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

Many thanks, a copy of the critical edition of "Pyrrhus", to be published by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles; acknowledgement as a sponsor in the Versailles Spectacles program book; two tickets to the concert of "Pyrrhus" on 16 September 2012 in the Château de Versailles; invitation to a reception with the artists after the concert, and an autographed program book.
(The delivery date refers to the CMBV edition of "Pyrrhus".)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

Many thanks, copies of the critical editions of "Le Pouvoir de l'Amour", published by the Centre de Musique Baroque (2006) and "Pyrrhus" (CMBV, estimated Spring 2014); acknowledgement as a sponsor in the Versailles Spectacles program book; an autographed program book; a cd of excerpts from "Pyrrhus"; and a signed cd of "Pièces de Clavecin" by Royer and Rameau, Lisa Goode Crawford, harpsichord.
(The delivery date refers to the CMBV edition of "Pyrrhus".)